The 99th Session of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) was held in London in the period of 16 - 25.05.2018.

The participants comprised delegates from member states, observers and consultants from international and non-governmental organisations. The subjects of the meeting included e.g.:

maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS),

amendments to IMO instruments,

the Polar Code (the second phase),

new ships' routes in the Bering Sea,

piracy and maritime security.

An employee of the of the Faculty of Navigation of the Maritime University of Szczecin, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, PhD. Eng. Professor of MUS, took part in the plenary session and the meeting of the working group on autonomous ships as an expert in the Polish delegation. The MSC initiated work related to maritime autonomous surface ships navigation. The initial definitions of maritime autonomous surface ships were prepared as well as the degree of their autonomy and the schedule of further work. A correspondence group for autonomous ships was established with a view to continuation of the work between the sessions. The Polish representatives contributing to the group are Tadeusz Wojtasik, Paweł Parkowski and Zbigniew Pietrzykowski. In the 99th Session of the MSC, Poland and Israel presented a joint document on development of technical and operational standards for NDSS CA navigation systems supporting decisions in collision situations. During the debate, the interested parties proposed supplementation of the document, suggesting that the requirements proposed in the document are defined too early and are ahead of the existing technical solutions. The Polish side intends to present the amended document in the 101st Session of MSC.

Fig. 1. The plenary session of the 99th Session of the Maritime Safety Committee, London 2018

Fig. 2. Representatives of the Polish delegation in the 99th Session of the Maritime Safety Committee, London 2018 From the left hand side: Tadeusz Wojtasik – the Deputy Head of the delegation, Zbigniew Pietrzykowski - the delegation expert, Wacław Bielawski - the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to the IMO - the Head of the delegation, Marta Grabowska – the Deputy Head of the delegation, Paweł Perkowski - a delegation member.